Christian Vision, Values and Courageous Advocacy

At St. Mary's we seek to be a community where all are welcome and encouraged to take their place, regardless of any and all differences. We encourage hard work and perseverance, and we expect everyone to strive to do their very best for themselves and each other. Our community is made strong through collaboration: learning from one another, supporting one another and challenging one another.

Our Christian Vision

St Mary’s Values

We express our Christian vision through six key values.  We use these to strive to do our best and support others to do the same.

We want to understand our community and the complex world beyond East Grinstead, developing the skills and a sense of our spiritual selves to navigate life’s challenges with a positive attitude to lead a diverse, connected and outward looking life.

Strategic Objectives

• Our Christian Values shine through our School Family
• We provide an excellent education that enables children to fulfil their potential and become life-long learners
• We develop the whole child to become a positive and responsible member of our community

Values Ambassadors

We have representatives from each class of St Mary’s who work together to raise awareness of the school’s Christian Values based on biblical teaching. 

The children meet regularly with the RE Coordinator and Head Teacher to create and support ideas that promote the school values, help their class to reflect on their spiritual journeys, develop and maintain reflection areas in each classroom and support in collective worship.

Each class has a Spiritual Journey Book which moves up the school with them, documenting the key experiences and learning of the class throughout each year.

Here are a selection of our spiritual journey displays to welcome people into our school in the foyer.

All are welcome in our school and we encourage each person to reflect on their own spiritual journey, respect others and be a positive influence in the world.

Courageous Advocacy

A courageous advocate is someone who supports, champions and speaks up for a cause that is important and meaningful to them.  Courage is needed to persevere and stand up for something or someone you believe in, to make a difference.

Building Relationships in our Local Community

St Catherine’s Hospice

St Catherine’s is a local charity that provides expert hospice care in West Sussex and East Surrey, for those reaching the end of their life and gives much needed support for their families.

Members of St Mary’s staff took part in a midnight walk to raise money for St Catherine’s Hospice.  The children of St Mary’s were then inspired to help increase the total by completing a school Silly Saunter.  Together we raised £6205.

East Grinstead Food Bank

All of the donations of food from our Harvest Festival were donated to East Grinstead Food Bank to help those families locally that find it difficult to afford enough food.

School Choir

Our school choir sing at many local events with their programmes include both worship songs and uplifting secular songs.  They have performed at St Swithun’s Parish Church with the East Grinstead Choral Society, at Standen, The Ashdown Forest Centre and Voice in a Million at London’s Wembley Arena.

Carol Singing at the Care Home

Annually, Class 3 visit Stildon Home, Bendencare to sing carols to the local residents and spend time sharing the joys of the festive season.

Local Environmental Projects

The Big Dig

Children and parents were involved in a huge project to plant over 100 trees on our field.  We want to invest in our local environment’s future by creating shelter and food for our local animals and birds and purifying our air.

Gardening Club

An afterschool club that teaches children the importance of caring for and cultivating the land to produce healthy plants and vegetables. 

The club also has a new project of creating a bug hotel to protect local insects and encourage them to thrive, as they are so important to our environment.

Litter Pick

Each week, Class 4 conduct a litter pick of the school premise.  We know how pollution can negatively affects our local plants and animals.  The children strongly believe in protecting the environment for everyone and encouraging nature to flourish.